1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to carbon nanotube arrays and methods for forming them, and more particularly to carbon nanotube arrays formed on metal substrates and methods for forming said carbon nanotube arrays. This application relates to a contemporaneously filed application having the same title, the same applicant and the same assignee with the instant application.
2. Description of Prior Art
Carbon nanotubes are very small tube-shaped structures each having the structure of a graphite sheet rolled into a tube. Carbon nanotubes produced by arc discharge between graphite rods were first discovered and reported in an article by Sumio Iijima entitled “Helical Microtubules of Graphitic Carbon” (Nature, Vol. 354, Nov. 7, 1991, pp. 56-58). Carbon nanotubes have excellent mechanical properties such as a high Young's modulus, a high elastic modulus, and low density. Carbon nanotubes also have excellent electrical, electromechanical and absorption properties. Carbon nanotubes display metallic properties or semiconductor properties according to different ways in which the graphite sheet is rolled. Due to these and other properties, it has been suggested that carbon nanotubes can play an important role in fields such as microscopic electronics, materials science, biology and chemistry.
The chemical vapor deposition method is known in the art as being conducive to growing carbon nanotube arrays with well aligned carbon nanotubes. In the chemical vapor deposition method, a carbon source gas is thermally decomposed at a predetermined temperature in the presence of a transition metal that acts as a catalyst, thereby forming a carbon nanotube array.
When a carbon nanotube array is used as an electrode in a field emission display, electron gun or other high power electronic device, the substrate on which the carbon nanotube array is formed must have good conductivity and the ability to carry high current loads. Thus, a metal substrate is best for such applications.
However, carbon nanotube arrays are generally formed on nonmetallic substrates such as silicon, silicon oxide or glass. This is because metal substrates generally impair high-density formation of pure, straight carbon nanotubes. In particular, a metal substrate is liable to react with the nanotube catalyst to form an alloy thereof, which renders the catalyst inactive. In addition, when the metal substrate itself is the catalyst, it is prone to decompose the carbon source gas to form amorphous carbon. The amorphous carbon inhibits formation of carbon nanotubes of the desired quality. In summary, it is difficult to optimally form carbon nanotubes using metal substrates.
A carbon nanotube assembly and method for producing the same are disclosed in China patent application CN1241813A. The assembly comprises a metal substrate and a coating of carbon nanotubes deposited thereon. The method includes the following steps: (1) separating formed single wall carbon nanotubes by chemical cutting technology; (2) dispersing the separated carbon nanotubes uniformly in water to form a water-soluble gel, and allowing the water-soluble gel to settle for an extended period; (3) selecting a band of the water-soluble gel which contains carbon nanotubes having a desired uniform length; (3) diluting the selected band of water-soluble gel with deionized water; and (4) coating the selected carbon nanotubes on a clean metal substrate to form carbon nanotubes standing upright on the metal substrate. However, this method does not provide original formation of carbon nanotubes directly on the metal substrate. In addition, when said water-soluble gel is allowed to settle, the time required is unduly long: typically around one month. These difficulties greatly limit industrial applications of the carbon nanotube assembly and method.
A method for producing a carbon nanotube array on an aluminum (Al) substrate was reported in an article by Ch. Emmenegger et al. entitled “Carbon nanotube synthesized on metallic substrate” (Applied Surface Science, Vol. 162-163, 2000, pp. 452-456). The method comprises the following steps: (1) coating iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)3) on an aluminum substrate; (2) annealing the substrate with the Fe(NO3)3 film to form nano-sized particles of ferric oxide (Fe2O3); and (3) introducing a mixture of carbon source gas and protective gas until a carbon nanotube array extends from the substrate.
However, the metallic material used as the substrate in the above-described method by Ch. Emmenegger et al. is limited to just several metals such as aluminum and nickel (Ni). This limitation is necessary to prevent the metal substrate from adversely affecting formation of the carbon nanotubes by reacting with the catalyst or by decomposing the carbon source gas to form amorphous carbon. Accordingly, the method is generally limited to applications in which aluminum and nickel electronic devices can be utilized.